Lives Of The Poets, Vol. 1 (fiscle part-III), Samuel Johnson [good summer reads .TXT] 📗
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His Having proceeded so Far In the Education Of Youth May Have Been The
Occasion Of His Adversaries Calling him Pedagogue And Schoolmaster;
Whereas, It Is Well Known He Never Set Up For A Publick School, To
Teach All The Young Fry Of A Parish; But Only Was Willing to Impart His
Learning and Knowledge To His Relations, And The Sons Of Gentlemen Who
Were His Intimate Friends, And That Neither His Writings, Nor His Way Of
Teaching, Ever Savoured in the Least Of Pedantry."
Thus Laboriously Does His Nephew Extenuate What Cannot Be Denied, And
What Might Be Confessed without Disgrace. Milton Was Not A Man Who Could
Become Mean By A Mean Employment. This, However, His Warmest Friends
Seem Not To Have Found; They, Therefore, Shift And Palliate. He Did
Not Sell Literature To All Comers, At An Open Shop; He Was A Chamber
Milliner, And Measured his Commodities Only To His Friends.
Philips, Evidently Impatient Of Viewing him In this State Of
Degradation, Tells Us That It Was Not Long Continued; And, To Raise His
Character Again, Has A Mind To Invest Him With Military Splendour: "He
Is Much Mistaken," He Says, "If There Was Not, About This Time, A Design
Of Making him An Adjutant-General In sir William Waller'S Army. But The
New Modelling of The Army Proved an Obstruction To The Design." An
Event Cannot Be Set At A Much Greater Distance Than By Having been Only
"Designed about Some Time," If A Man "Be Not Much Mistaken." Milton
Shall Be A Pedagogue No Longer; For, If Philips Be Not Much Mistaken,
Somebody At Some Time Designed him For A Soldier.
About The Time That The Army Was New-Modelled, (1645,) He Removed to
A Smaller House In holborn, Which Opened backward Into Lincoln'S Inn
Fields. He Is Not Known To Have Published any Thing afterwards, Till
The King'S Death, When, Finding his Murderers Condemned by The
Presbyterians, He Wrote A Treatise To Justify It, And "To Compose The
Minds Of The People."
He Made Some Remarks On The Articles Of Peace Between Ormond And The
Irish Rebels. While He Contented himself To Write, He, Perhaps, Did Only
What His Conscience Dictated; And If He Did Not Very Vigilantly Watch
The Influence Of His Own Passions, And The Gradual Prevalence Of
Opinions, First Willingly Admitted, And Then Habitually Indulged; If
Objections, By Being overlooked, Were Forgotten, And Desire Superinduced
Conviction; He Yet Shared only The Common Weakness Of Mankind, And Might
Be No Less Sincere Than His Opponents. But, As Faction Seldom Leaves A
Man Honest, However It Might Find Him, Milton Is Suspected of Having
Interpolated the Book Called icon Basilike, Which The Council Of State,
To Whom He Was Now Made Latin Secretary, Employed him To Censure, By
Inserting a Prayer Taken From Sidney'S Arcadia, And Imputing it To The
King; Whom He Charges, In his Iconoclastes, With The Use Of This Prayer,
As With A Heavy Crime, In the Indecent Language With Which Prosperity
Had Emboldened the Advocates For Rebellion To Insult All That Is
Venerable Or Great: "Who Would Have Imagined so Little Fear In him Of
The True All-Seeing deity, As, Immediately Before His Death, To Pop Into
The Hands Of The Grave Bishop That Attended him, As A Special Relique Of
His Saintly Exercises, A Prayer, Stolen Word For Word, From The Mouth Of
A Heathen Woman, Praying to A Heathen God?"
The Papers Which The King gave To Dr. Juxon, On The Scaffold, The
Regicides Took Away, So That They Were, At Least, The Publishers Of This
Prayer; And Dr. Birch, Who Had Examined the Question With Great Care,
Was Inclined to Think Them The Forgers. The Use Of It, By Adaptation,
Was Innocent; And They Who Could So Noisily Censure It, With A
Little Extension Of Their Malice, Could Contrive What They Wanted to
Accuse[36].
King charles The Second, Being now Sheltered in holland, Employed
Salmasius, Professor Of Polite Learning at Leyden, To Write A Defence Of
His Father And Of Monarchy; And, To Excite His Industry, Gave Him, As
Was Reported, A Hundred jacobuses. Salmasius Was A Man Of Skill In
Languages, Knowledge Of Antiquity, And Sagacity Of Emendatory Criticism,
Almost Exceeding all Hope Of Human Attainment; And Having, By Excessive
Praises, Been Confirmed in great Confidence Of Himself, Though He
Probably Had Not Much Considered the Principles Of Society, Or The
Rights Of Government, Undertook The Employment Without Distrust Of His
Own Qualifications; And, As His Expedition In writing was Wonderful, In
1649, Published defensio Regis.
To This Milton Was Required to Write A Sufficient Answer; Which He
Performed (1651) In such A Manner, That Hobbes Declared himself Unable
To Decide Whose Language Was Best, Or Whose Arguments Were Worst. In my
Opinion, Milton'S Periods Are Smoother, Neater, And More Pointed; But He
Delights Himself With Teasing his Adversary, As Much As With Confuting
Him. He Makes A Foolish Allusion Of Salmasius, Whose Doctrine He
Considers As Servile And Unmanly, To The Stream Of Salmacis, Which,
Whoever Entered, Left Half His Virility Behind Him. Salmasius Was A
Frenchman, And Was Unhappily Married to A Scold: "Tu Es Gallus," Says
Milton, "Et, Ut Aiunt, Minium Gallinaceus." But His Supreme Pleasure Is
To Tax His Adversary, So Renowned for Criticism, With Vitious Latin. He
Opens His Book With Telling that He Has Used _Persona_, Which, According
To Milton, Signifies Only A _Mask_, In a Sense Not Known To The Romans,
By Applying it As We Apply _Person_. But, As Nemesis Is Always On The
Watch, It Is Memorable That He Has Enforced the Charge Of A Solecism By
An Expression In itself Grossly Solecistical, When, For One Of Those
Supposed blunders, He Says, As Ker, And, I Think, Some One Before Him,
Has Remarked, "Propino Te Grammatistis Tuis _Vapulandum_[37]." From
_Vapulo_, Which Has A Passive Sense, _Vapulandus_ Can Never Be Derived.
No Man Forgets His Original Trade: The Rights Of Nations, And Of Kings,
Sink Into Questions Of Grammar, If Grammarians Discuss Them.
Milton, When He Undertook This Answer, Was Weak Of Body And Dim Of
Sight; But His Will Was Forward, And What Was Wanting of Health Was
Supplied by Zeal. He Was Rewarded with A Thousand Pounds, And His Book
Was Much Read; For Paradox, Recommended by Spirit And Elegance, Easily
Gains Attention; And He, Who Told Every Man That He Was Equal To His
King, Could Hardly Want An Audience.
That The Performance Of Salmasius Was Not Dispersed with Equal Rapidity,
Or Read With Equal Eagerness, Is Very Credible. He Taught Only The Stale
Doctrine Of Authority, And The Unpleasing duty Of Submission; And He Had
Been So Long Not Only The Monarch, But The Tyrant, Of Literature, That
Almost All Mankind Were Delighted to Find Him Defied and Insulted by A
New Name, Not Yet Considered as Any One'S Rival. If Christina, As Is
Said, Commended the Defence Of The People, Her Purpose Must Be To
Torment Salmasius, Who Was Then At Court; For Neither Her Civil Station,
Nor Her Natural Character, Could Dispose Her To Favour The Doctrine, Who
Was By Birth A Queen, And By Temper Despotick.
That Salmasius Was, From The Appearance Of Milton'S Book, Treated with
Neglect, There Is Not Much Proof; But To A Man, So Long Accustomed to
Admiration, A Little Praise Of His Antagonist Would Be Sufficiently
Offensive, And Might Incline Him To Leave Sweden, From Which, However,
He Was Dismissed, Not With Any Mark Of Contempt, But With A Train Of
Attendance Scarcely Less Than Regal.
He Prepared a Reply, Which, Left As It Was Imperfect, Was Published by
His Son In the Year Of The Restoration. In the Beginning, Being probably
Most In pain For His Latinity, He Endeavours To Defend His Use Of The
Word _Persona_; But, If I Remember Right, He Misses A Better Authority
Than Any That He Has Found, That Of Juvenal In his Fourth Satire:
Quid Agas, Cum Dira Et Foedior Omni
Crimine _Persona_ Est?
As Salmasius Reproached milton With Losing his Eyes In the Quarrel,
Milton Delighted himself With The Belief That He Had Shortened
Salmasius'S Life, And Both, Perhaps, With More Malignity Than Reason.
Salmasius Died at The Spa, Sept. 3, 1653; And, As Controvertists Are
Commonly Said To Be Killed by Their Last Dispute, Milton Was Flattered
With The Credit Of Destroying him.
Cromwell Had Now Dismissed the Parliament By The Authority Of Which He
Had Destroyed monarchy, And Commenced monarch Himself, Under The Title
Of Protector, But With Kingly, And More Than Kingly, Power. That His
Authority Was Lawful, Never Was Pretended: He Himself Founded his Right
Only In necessity; But Milton, Having now Tasted the Honey Of Publick
Employment, Would Not Return To Hunger And Philosophy, But, Continuing
To Exercise His Office, Under A Manifest Usurpation, Betrayed to His
Power That Liberty Which He Had Defended. Nothing can Be More Just Than
That Rebellion Should End In slavery; That He, Who Had Justified the
Murder Of His King, For Some Acts Which Seemed to Him Unlawful, Should
Now Sell His Services, And His Flatteries, To A Tyrant, Of Whom It Was
Evident That He Could Do Nothing lawful.
He Had Now Been Blind For Some Years; But His Vigour Of Intellect
Was Such, That He Was Not Disabled to Discharge His Office Of Latin
Secretary, Or Continue His Controversies. His Mind Was Too Eager To Be
Diverted, And Too Strong To Be Subdued.
About This Time His First Wife Died in childbed, Having left Him Three
Daughters. As He Probably Did Not Much Love Her, He Did Not Long
Continue The Appearance Of Lamenting her; But, After A Short Time,
Married catharine, The Daughter Of One Captain Woodcock, Of Hackney; A
Woman, Doubtless, Educated in opinions Like His Own. She Died, Within A
Year, Of Childbirth, Or Some Distemper That Followed it; And Her Husband
Honoured her Memory With A Poor Sonnet.
The First Reply To Milton'S Defensio Populi Was Published in 1651,
Called apologia Pro Rege Et Populo Anglicano, Contra Johannis
Polypragmatici, Alias Miltoni, Defensionem Destructivam Regis Et Populi.
Of This The Author Was Not Known; But Milton And His Nephew, Philips,
Under Whose Name He Published an Answer, So Much Corrected by Him That
It Might Be Called his Own, Imputed it To Bramhal; And, Knowing him No
Friend To Regicides, Thought Themselves At Liberty To Treat Him As If
They Had Known What They Only Suspected.
Next Year Appeared regii Sanguinis Clamor Ad Coelum. Of This The Author
Was Peter Du Moulin, Who Was Afterwards Prebendary Of Canterbury; But
Morus, Or More, A French Minister, Having the Care Of Its Publication,
Was Treated as The Writer By Milton In his Defensio Secunda, And
Overwhelmed by Such Violence Of Invective, That He Began To Shrink Under
The Tempest, And Gave His Persecutors The Means Of Knowing the True
Author. Du Moulin Was Now In great Danger; But Milton'S Pride Operated
Against His Malignity; And Both He And His Friends Were More Willing
That Du Moulin Should Escape Than That He Should Be Convicted of
Mistake.
In This Second Defence He Shows That His Eloquence Is Not Merely
Satirical; The Rudeness Of His Invective Is Equalled by The Grossness
Of His Flattery. "Deserimur, Cromuelle, Tu Solus Superes, Ad Te Summa
Nostrarum Rerum Rediit, In te Solo Consistit, Insuperabili Tuae Virtuti
Cedimus Cuncti, Nemine Vel Obloquente, Nisi Qui Aequales Inaequalis Ipse
Honores Sibi Quaerit, Aut Digniori Concessos Invidet, Aut Non Intelligit
Nihil Esse In societate Hominum Magis Vel Deo Gratum, Vel Rationi
Consentaneum, Esse In civitate Nihil Aequius, Nihil Utilius, Quam Potiri
Rerum Dignissimum. Eum Te Agnoscunt Omnes, Cromuelle, Ea Tu Civis
Maximus Et Gloriosissimus[38], Dux Publici Consilii, Exercituum
Fortissimorum Imperator, Pater Patriae Gessisti. Sic Tu Spontanea
Bonorum Omnium, Et Animitus Missa Voce Salutaris."
Caesar, When He Assumed the Perpetual Dictatorship, Had Not More Servile
Or More Elegant Flattery. A Translation May Show Its Servility; But
Its Elegance Is Less Attainable. Having exposed the Unskilfulness Or
Selfishness Of The Former Government, "We Were Left," Says Milton,
"To Ourselves: The Whole National Interest Fell Into Your Hands, And
Subsists Only In your Abilities. To Your Virtue, Overpowering and
Resistless, Every Man Gives Way, Except Some Who, Without Equal
Qualifications, Aspire To Equal Honours, Who Envy The Distinctions Of
Merit, Greater Than Their Own, Or Who Have Yet To Learn, That, In the
Coalition Of Human Society, Nothing is More Pleasing to God, Or More
Agreeable To Reason, Than That The Highest Mind Should Have The
Sovereign Power. Such, Sir, Are You By General Confession; Such Are The
Things Achieved by You, The Greatest And Most Glorious Of Our Countrymen,
The Director Of Our Publick Councils, The Leader Of Unconquered armies,
The Father Of Your Country; For By That Title Does Every Good Man Hail
You With Sincere And Voluntary Praise."
Next Year, Having defended all That Wanted defence, He Found Leisure To
Defend Himself. He Undertook His Own Vindication Against More, Whom He
Declares, In his Title, To Be Justly Called the Author Of The Regii
Sanguinis Clamor. In this There Is No
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